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Creativity And Innovation In Education – Short Takes On EDUCAUSE 2013

“Skate to where the puck’s going, not where it’s been,” – Wayne Gretsky

The quote from hockey star Wayne Gretsky was one of the recurring themes of EDUCAUSE 2013. Many of the EDUCAUSE sessions were striving to help IT get out in front of their user base and prepare to support new, emerging styles of learning. Here’s a cross section of some of those sessions, related hallway discussions, and a general wrap up of EDUCAUSE 2013.

Blackboard 2020

If there is one product that IT people universally groan about, it’s Blackboard. This is partially due to Blackboard’s ubiquity; any product with so many users is bound to elicit complaints. But there are also substantive issues, like weak support, poor software performance, and lack of a mobile strategy. As a side note, it should be noted that some of Blackboard’s largest competitors, like Jenzabar, are not faring much better. On the other hand, Canvas, a relatively new contender, is emerging as the hot LMS platform.

With this as the backdrop, Blackboard delivered a session on the future of education: Education 2020. To clear the air, a manager from Blackboard admitted that they had taken their eye off the ball while busy acquiring other companies, and had missed the transition to mobile. The good news is that they now have a solid plan to integrate their family of companies and products, and they will be launching a series of innovate new products. They are also offering a free MOOC platform and even a MOOC course of their own – on the subject of badging.

Blackboard’s view of the future of education includes mobile everywhere, embracing non-traditional learners, making education truly learner-centric, incorporating consumer preferences, and making more use of big data. They have witnessed an explosion of online learning, even in the lower grades. Research shows that 26% of 3-5th graders are interested in taking an online class. Parents are now value shopping and looking for schools that offer the most engaging content.

Adaptive Learning

The concept of adaptive learning involves applying computing technology to specifically tailor content to students’ individual needs. The technology to accomplish this was pioneered by, among others, Knewton and Arizona State University. Inside Higher Ed’s Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology found that one-third of faculty members have used adaptive learning and 61% agree that adaptive learning has “great potential to make a positive impact on higher education.”

Session presenter Michael Windelspecht, director of the introductory biology program at Appalachian State University, discussed how LearnSmart is structured. Students are given questions to answer at the end of each assignment. Along with their answers, they indicate how sure they are of each answer. The software not only lets the instructors know which students are completing the assignments, it also predicts when individual students will start to forget the content and which students are starting to feel stress.

Text books are no longer simply passive in how they provide content to the student. With adaptive learning software integrated into eBooks, they are capable of highlighting passages that individual students need to concentrate on, based on how the student has answered the questions. Just when you thought the cost of college texts might be headed downward with the advent of on-line and digital textbooks, adaptive learning technology will be sending prices in the other direction. However, the benefits in terms of individualized and self-paced learning could far outweigh these costs.

New classroom designs discussed by Maya Georgieva, Associate Director, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at NYU Stern School of Business at EDUCAUSE 2013

What are your thoughts on these topics? Feel free to comment here or tweet the author at twitter.com/RHNilsson.

About The Contributor:

Bob NilssonDirector of Vertical Solutions Marketing

Bob Nilsson is the director of vertical solutions marketing at Extreme Networks. In this role, Mr. Nilsson leads the Extreme Networks strategy and programs for vertical markets including Healthcare, Higher Education, K-12 Education, Federal Government, and Hospitality. He has over 30 years of experience in marketing IT systems to Global 1000 companies worldwide. Before joining Extreme Networks Bob was VP Marketing at Clear Methods. Prior to that Bob held senior marketing positions at Digital Equipment and HP. Bob holds an SB degree in EE from MIT and MBA from Columbia Business School.